Public gets inside look at $1.1B hydro project
After four years of construction, the $1.1-billion John Hart Generating Station replacement project near Campbell River is set to take over from the previous facility.
One new turbine and generator are already in use. The final two generators will be ready for duty next month.
“The old John Hart generating station will be permanently shut down and operations transferred to the new facility in mid-October,” Stephen Watson, B.C. Hydro spokesman, said Monday.
“By end of summer 2019, the old generating station will be removed to the ground level and the three wooden and steel penstocks will be removed and the penstock corridor will eventually be returned to forest.”
The public was invited to buy a $5 ticket for a rare opportunity to tour the generating station on Sunday. More than 1,200 people from throughout Vancouver Island and the mainland visited the underground 10-storey high powerhouse cavern.
Ticket proceeds and additional funding from B.C. Hydro will see $7,000 donated to North Island College to support seven apprenticeship scholarships. “A perfect fit given we have three large dam safety upgrades proposed for the Campbell River system that may begin in 2021-2022,” Watson said.
Campbell River Mayor Andy Adams said the project was “an impressive sight.” “Years in the making, B.C. Hydro and SNCLavalin are to be commended for the engagement and collaboration that has brought hundreds of international specialists together with hundreds of community businesses providing a very important economic stimulus for Campbell River,” he said in a statement.
The original 1947 generating station was in poor condition and needed to be replaced. Its electricity output was dropping. The station and its pipelines were deemed unlikely to withstand a moderate earthquake.
John Hart Generating Station is on the Campbell River.
It uses water collected in a dam that gushes into tunnels and headlong into turbines, which generate electricity. Water is then released back into the river.
Construction started in June 2014 and the project provided jobs for hundreds of workers and saw tens of millions of dollars spent on Vancouver Island.
The new generating station is built to higher seismic standards than the old one and will be able to provide power to 80,000 homes, up from 74,000 under the current system.
InPower BC, owned by SNCLavalin, was contracted to build the replacement generating station. The project's civil contractor is ASL-JV, consisting of Aecon SNC-Lavalin.
The project included building a replacement water intake at the John Hart spillway dam, replacing three 1.8-kilometre long penstocks with a 2.1-kilometre long tunnel, constructing a new generating station and water bypass facility upstream of the existing station.